Google Eyes Android Smartwatch

Google Android model would compete with Apple, Samsung smartwatches reportedly in the works.

Apple iWatch Vs. Smartwatches Past And Present

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Google is the latest technology company believed to be developing an Internet-enabled watch.

According to a report published in the Financial Times, Google's "smartwatch" is being developed in the company's Android unit rather than in X Lab, where the company's other wearable product, Product Glass, originated.

In a report published in January, "Fitness Wearables -- Many Products, Few Customers," Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps predicted Google will release a smartwatch soon. "We expect the developer release of Glass in 2013 to catalyze excitement [about wearable computing] and experimentation from app developers, and we expect Google to release its own version of an Android-based smartwatch in the near future," she wrote.

Nevertheless, earlier this week, a Samsung executive told Bloomberg that Samsung is working on a watch, presumably an Internet-connected one. The company also has several watch-related patents.

Last month, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported that Apple has a substantial team of engineers and designers readying a smartwatch. A similar claim had surfaced on a Chinese blog last year.

More smartwatches might be coming: According to the Korea Times, electronics maker LG is also developing a smartwatch, presumably an improvement upon its existing watch-phone product.

If these rumored smartwatches appear as predicted, they will join an already crowded market. There's the Pebble, the Sony SmartWatch, i'm Watch, WearIt, Metawatch, Cookoo Watch, Martian Watch and assorted watch-like sports devices, such as Leikr.

What will these watches do? Expect them to do what mobile phones do, but with a different interface. They're likely to provide some subset of the following services: notifications and alerts, email, activity monitoring, location monitoring, health monitoring, apps, reminders, telephony, SMS, audio recording, image capturing, electronic purchase authorization and two-factor authentication.

Among 688 respondents, 46% have deployed mobile apps, with an additional 24% planning to in the next year. Soon all apps will look like mobile apps – and it's past time for those with no plans to get cracking.